Posted by
Bert Chapman on Monday, April 13, 2009 9:54:00 AM
Yesterday's rescue of the captain of the pirate seized U.S. tanker off the Somali coast is a welcome event. The Obama Administration was slow to recognize the gravity of this matter but , fortunately, Obama decided to listen to the military and the Navy seals resolved this matter in the only way it could be. Unfortunately, the pirates and terrorists as criminals mentality contending that such individuals can be prosecuted in normal civilian legal proceedings still holds dangerous sway in Obama Administration thinking as demonstrated by pronouncements and policy decisions made by Attorney General Holder and Sec. State Clinton. The fact that the surviving pirate kidnapper is to be tried under civilian procedures is not a good sign that the Obama Administration understands that the resurgence of international maritime piracy can only be dealt with through military means.
Positive steps the Obama Administration could take to cope with this menace are reversing the two decades long decline in U.S. naval surface ships and seeking funding for fast, highly mobile, and heavily armed vessels capable of finding, tracking, and destroying pirates in oceanic and littoral waters in areas of the world as diverse as the Somali coast, Straits of Malacca, and elsewhere. Giving our naval forces liberal rules of engagement to destroy these bandits is also essential! The administration and congress should also draft legislation giving U.S. flagged merchant ships the legal authority to train and arm their crews to fight and defeat, or at least deter, pirate attacks until naval reinforcements can arrive. Such legislation would be consistent with U.S. constitutional provisions giving privateers the authority to conduct de facto military operations and seize pirate property. We should immediately withdraw from any international maritime agreements prohibiting civilian merchant ships and their crews from defending themselves against pirate attacks. We should also work closely with our allies and potential allies to develop coordinated procedures for ruthlessly destroying pirate forces desirous of attacking commercial shipping which is so critical to global economic health. A basic prerequisite of such procedures is an ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION against ship owners paying ransom to pirate terrorists.
These pirate attacks are result of the consequences of a failed Somali state which has no control over its terroritory and failed nation states are a national security threat to the U.S. and other countries which is constantly referenced in national security literature. The U.S. and other western countries should seriously reconsider establishing a colonial presence in Somalia regardless of what the United Nations or African nations think. Somali's location so close to critical trade routes and Middle East oil supplies is so important to the international economy that it must be governed by a stable and competent entity even if this entity consists of Western countries. The world cannot allow that region of the world to be controlled by anarchy or Islamist terrorist organizations.